Bard successfully secures eco-town judicial review

For immediate release 11 SEPTEMBER 2008

BARD SUCCESSFULLY SECURES ECO-TOWN JUDICIAL REVIEW

Mr Justice Collins today ruled that the BARD Campaign has presented an arguable legal case in its bid to judicially review the Government’s eco-town policy. The case will now proceed to a full hearing forcing the Government to justify its new programme before the High Court.

Today’s decision follows the application for Judicial Review made in June 2008 by the BARD Campaign, the group against the proposed 'Middle Quinton' eco-town between Stratford-upon-Avon and Evesham in Warwickshire/Worcestershire, on former MoD-owned land lying adjacent to the Cotswolds’ Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty.

The Government’s whole eco-town consultation process will now be put to the test. The BARD Campaign seeks a judicial declaration that the eco-towns policy is unlawful and should be halted until proper and full consultation has taken place.

Mr Justice Collins on granting the application comments:

“I have no doubt that this claim is arguable and so permission should be granted…

“I note there must be concerned that the defendant [Secretary of State, Communities & Local Government] may have disqualified herself from considering any planning application for an ECO-town because of perceived bias in its favour.”

David Bliss, Chair of BARD Campaign said:

"We are delighted with Judge Collins’ decision and comments today that we have clearly made an arguable case for review of the Government’s whole eco-town programme. We trust the Judicial Review will conclude that the Government's consultation process was both inadequate and deeply flawed. Mr Justice Collins has said that the consultation period must be extended.

“The issue is quite simple. Large-scale local planning decisions should be left to local authorities with direct accountability to the people whose lives they impact. Over 47 national and regional expert bodies, campaign groups and locally elected representatives have expressed their widespread misgivings over this eco-town programme since its inception. So the government just crying ‘NIMBY’ in response to public concerns is woefully inadequate and demonstrably wide of the mark.”

NOTES TO EDITORS

A copy of today’s Collins’ Order is attached on the downloadable press release. Copies of the Claim Form and Statement of Facts and Grounds are available on request.

The application for Judicial Review was lodged on 24 June 2008 by Ian Dove QC and Christopher Young, Counsel, and SJ Berwin, solicitors, to the BARD Campaign and its Chairman and co-applicant, David Bliss. No date is yet set for the full hearing of the case but the judge has said the ball is in the Court of the Secretary of State and that in any event it should be heard within the next court term (ie before the end of the year.

The Campaign’s JR application seeks the following relief:

1. the decision to select Long Marston be quashed.

(ii) a declaration that the Defendants' decision on the eco-towns programme is unlawful

(iii) a declaration having the effect of revoking the selection of the ex- MOD site at Long Marston as a candidate eco-town.

(iv) a declaration that it would be unlawful for the Defendant to continue the present eco-town programme and that it should only recommence the same after proper and full consultation has taken place on the following:

(i) the principle of having eco-towns as a way of meeting housing need in England, together with a genuine consideration of the alternatives; (ii) the merits of the eco-town concept and programme;

1. the key criteria and essential requirements of an eco-town.

(v) a declaration that it would be unlawful for the Defendant to continue the present eco-town bidding process and to recommence the same only after the key criteria and essential requirements have been properly established and all potential bidders are made aware of the same, including the decision on whether all proposals must be freestanding or whether urban sites and urban extensions sites will also be considered by the Defendant.

(vi) a declaration that it would be unlawful for the Defendant to pursue any of the above without ensuring full compliance with the European and domestic requirements for strategic environmental assessment.

Interim Relief

(vii) disclosure of all the information requested in the Claimant's Solicitors letter of 1 May 2008.

(viii) disclosure of all reports or similar produced by other Government departments and agencies in respect of the 57 eco-towns bids.

(ix) that the consultation period be extended by a period of three months.

(x) such further or other relief that the Court considers appropriate

(xi) such further and other orders that this Court considers appropriate.

The judge did not see it necessary to grant (vii) or (viii) of the Interim Relief at this stage but did consider that both were relevant to the Claim.

The BARD Campaign (www.BARDcampaign.org) was formed by a group of residents from across Warwickshire / Worcestershire and Gloucestershire earlier this year. They are not experts in new town development. However knowing their area well, they instinctively felt that development of a town of at least 6000 houses, plus retail and leisure facilities, offices, an incinerator and railway on a 600-acre site in rural isolation, would fail both in its alleged eco agenda and would not provide solutions to the counties’ affordable housing needs, let alone irreparably damage this beautiful part of middle England.

They therefore clubbed together to instruct a series of leading experts in town planning, transport, environmental sustainability and planning law to provide the factual basis for their concerns. They soon uncovered that there were other far more suitable locations to the north and east of the region which would be far better suited to an experimental new-town, lying within designated growth corridors or areas of new housing and regeneration need.

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